On a day the NFL announced a $100 million initiative toward improving player safety, commissioner Roger Goodell had a message for parents who are skeptical of letting their children play football due to the concussion risk.

"I understand the skepticism of the NFL,'' Goodell told Matt Lauer in an exclusive interview on TODAY Wednesday. "But let me just go to the American Academy of Pediatrics. They have looked at this issue of young kids coming into football, and they have said, 'It's about proper coaching, improve the techniques. Do the things necessary to limit contacts.' Those are changes that we have been making."
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Goodell believes changes being implemented at the lowest levels of football are making the game safer.
"I went by a youth football practice the other day and was watching it,'' he said. "I see how they're teaching the game differently. That's great for football, but that's also great for all other sports."
In an open letter in Wednesday's Wall Street Journal, Goodell announced the league's "Play Smart Play Safe" initiative in which $100 million is being put toward medical research and developing new technology to make the game safer for its players.

​Read more here.

When parents are trying to keep their children safe, one thing many of them do is transport their kids in a stroller or baby carrier.
While strollers and carriers are generally safe when used properly, a new study is a reminder that even these devices can be dangerous, especially when parents don't use them properly.
Almost 361,000 children ages 5 and younger were treated in U.S. emergency rooms between 1990 and 2010 for injuries they suffered in connection with a stroller or carrier, according to the study published in the journal Academic Pediatrics.

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It’s summertime, and the livin’ may be easy, but that doesn’t mean parents can let their defenses down when it comes to their children’s health and safety. Quite the opposite, since the rate of accidents increases as the weather gets warmer.

The myriad of ways kids can be injured, sometimes seriously and permanently, is longer than can be detailed here. While children still break arms and legs, they also suffer spinal cord and brain injuries that can require acute inpatient rehabilitation and long-term outpatient therapy that offer no guarantee of a complete recovery. Better than 50% of pediatric spinal cord injuries are accompanied by some level of paralysis and even the mildest brain injuries can significantly impact a child’s ability to perform daily activities and master tasks at school.  

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Do you need a bike helmet? You wouldn’t think that would still be a controversial question, but it is. The antihelmet contingent offers arguments such as: “Forcing people to wear helmets makes cycling seem dangerous,” and, “It discourages exercise.’’

Helmets aren’t a panacea, but you should wear one. Here’s why: Eighty-seven percent of the bicyclists killed in accidents over the past two decades were not wearing helmets, according to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety. And when it comes to nonfatal injuries, a 2013 review by a committee at the Institute of Medicine found that wearing a helmet during sports reduces the risk of traumatic brain injury by almost 70 percent.

Read more here.